Strategies To Market The Web 2.0

If you have an online business, there is need for a Web 2.0 marketing strategy. The internet now includes a sort of social democracy that is significantly different from the classic Search Engine Marketing. Social networks that tend to cater to groups of specific interest are in.

Such communities discuss specific subjects collectively. While the days of a couple of "Authority Niche Sites" that every one refers to as authorities in a subject are waning. People online are listening more and more to the other people's opinion regarding stuff.

Infact social networks are growing at four times the rate that the internet itself is growing. Yesterday the hit was MySpace, today it is Facebook, who knows what next. And this is no fad, so do not expect to find it gone tomorrow.

There is a report that indicates that ages 18-24 first visit a social network then go to a search engine (think anticipated market). Industry watch dog eMartketer estimates that 52% of web traffic is video. Most of this video traffic is driven by social networks like YouTube, Google Videos and MetaCafe.

Social networks, be they video sites, blog site, tagging site, profile sites etc drive millions of targeted traffic daily. And if you have had an SEO strategy, then a Web2.0 strategy to tap this market that is possibly bigger that the search engine market is imperative.

First and foremost you need to learn the different types of social media. For example Blinkbits is a social bookmarking site. It will keep record of all pages that you like and bookmarked so that you can revisit them again from any computer connected to the internet anywhere in the world. On the other hand Clipmark is a note taking site. It clips interesting content form a webpage for future reference. So you tend to bookmark when you are interested in the whole page, while you clipmark when you are just interested in a portion of a webpage e.g. a quote.

With this knowledge you then need to develop a clear and concise idea of what you ultimately want to achieve with the traffic from social sites. Do you want direct sales? Do you want them to subscribe? Do you want to create a buzz by them telling a friend? Based on what you know about social sites what do you think your business can achieve from them. Like every strategy clear goals help you chart the way forward.

You may also need to include multiple media in your strategy. This means developing content in video, audio, blog, pdf, RSS feeds etc. Then share this content in the relevant social platforms.

To help in socializing your content, you may also need to make your website Web 2.0 friendly. This means you may need to include means for your fans and people interested in your content to share it, comment about it and follow it. This is pivotal in succeeding with web 2.0.

Finally you will need to monitor engagement and learn as you go. Since much of this media is new, no one knows exactly how to best get the results you want with it. So you will have to track and access you success frequently. This should be nothing new if you have tracking your PPC and SEO strategies. As noted last week social marketing is showing significantly return on investment, so it is worth it.